The Daily Yomiuri reports that Tokyo University Hospital in Bunkyo Ward has been asked to act as a consultant for Yakitate!! Japan creator Takashi Hashiguchi's new medical manga, Saijo no Meii (The Best Skilled Surgeon), which is currently serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday. This is the first time a hospital has acted as a consultant for a manga:

"With graphic novels and manga, librarians have seen an upsurge in demand the last three to five years, and many say manga is their highest circulation material," said Ann Kim, editor of special projects and graphic novels for Library Journal. "There is definitely more respect now."

Broccoli Books has announced on its fan club mailing list that it will be releasingsola, written by Naoki Hisaya (Kanon), drawn by Chako Abeno with original character design by Naru Nanao (D.C. ~Da Capo~, ef - a tale of memories), in 2008 summer.

Save Money, Save Time, Register Online Pre-Registration Special Available Only Till End of the Year

Anaheim, California (December 28, 2007) ‹ Anime Expo® 2008 announces that online pre-registration for attendees, industry members and press representatives will be made available Saturday; December 29, 2007 at noon PST. More information can be found on the website www.spja.org.

Pachinko Vista is reporting that in 2007, Japan saw an increase in manga "tie-in" pachinko machines appeared in Japan. With around 140 machines, more than 1/4 of which are new machines, 55 of them are manga/anime related.

The machines are targeted at people from different generations, utilizing old titles such as Samurai Giants, Star Blazers, Tatter-man and more recent series like Basilisk and GTO. Some even became hit machines, such as Evangelion.

Ultimatum Tidbits reports that Nihon Bungeisha's Manga Goraku Nexter will be going on hiatus after its February issue (12/26).

Of the series currently being serialized in the magazine, Watanabe Michio's Hakuryuu (White Dragon; 白竜) (story: Tennoji Dai) will be remade as a new series titled Hakuryuu Legend (白竜LEGEND) in the 1/11-18 issue of Weekly Manga Goraku (12/27).

Boston, December 27, 2007: New England Anime Society (NEAS), the Massachusetts-based non-profit organization behind Anime Boston and Providence Anime Conference, is proud to be participating in First Night Boston, an all-ages New Year's Eve celebration on December 31st, 2007. First Night Boston activities include arts and cultural performances at venues throughout Boston, and as part of the festivities, the NEAS will be screening anime from 1 PM to 11 PM in the Hynes Convention Center, Room 100.

The data book comes with data on 436 magazines from 57 publishing companies in Japan. The guide lists each magazine's format, forms of publication, dates, price and more, with each magazine categorized by genre. Moreover, each entry includes a brief description of the magazine from its Editor-in-Chief.

ANN is reporting that a German company called Schwarzkopf & Henkel is using manga characters from Hiroshi Takahashi's Crows and Worst to promote its latest hair coloring product in Japan:

The new lineup will include more unusual colors: beige, ash, gray, blonde, khaki (greenish tint), and blood (reddish tint). The price for each color will be about 700 yen (US$6.00), and the new lineup will be launched on February 4.

From BusinessWeek comes an article titled "Europe's Manga Mania," which looks at how European fans are favoring manga over traditional Western comics:

While Western comics such as Donald Duck, Tintin, and Asterix long dominated the European market, young readers like Malis are looking eastward. The Japan External Trade Organization says German and French sales of manga totaled $212.6 million last year, making Europe the largest consumer of manga outside Japan.

Anime News Service, launched in 1998 by Jonah Morgan, is one of the earliest Web sites dedicated to reporting news on Japanese animation and comics that is still operational today.

From what the latest anime creators have been up to, to the latest trends in western distribution, to exclusive interviews with industry professionals, ANS has been serving industry news both from home and abroad.

So what went on behind the scenes at ANS? What is it like being one of the oldest anime news sites on the internet? Read on as we dive into the interesting history of Anime News Service.

Networks of Desire--the second volume in the Mechademia series, an annual forum devoted to critical and creative work on Japanese anime, manga, and the fan cultures that have coalesced around them—explores the varieties of desire that structure and influence much of contemporary anime and manga in manifestations that range from the explicitly sexual to more sublimated text and imagery.